On a guest post for Mary Knudson’s HeartSense blog, I talk about why I started running:

Being a sprinter, I had never done much long distance work. In the past, making it around the 400m track just once was an accomplishment for me. Plus, my closest friends from college are hard-core distance runners. And by that, I mean they are really, really fast. Like 2:30ish marathon fast. Top 50 in the Boston Marathon fast. Fast fast. You get the point. So getting into this road racing business was a bit intimidating. I didn’t even tell my best friends what I was doing until shortly before my first race.

I started out slow, running just twice per week, a sluggish mile or two at a time. Week by week, runs became easier, and I found myself starting to push myself to go further, and faster. I started watching what I ate, making smarter choices on trips to the refrigerator. As the months passed, I began feeling better than ever, and had wrangled my waistline back to its proper diameter. My annual physical revealed more good news, as my cholesterol and blood pressure were now held in check.

You can read the full post here.

It’s my first trip to London, or to the UK for that matter.  The city itself has the distinctive, quintessential, old-world charm I pictured, yet it’s blanketed with the expected conveniences of modern technology.  My office for the past two days has rotated between a few wifi-enabled local pubs, a scene that may in fact be the clearest example of the integration of the old and the new.

Some simple trip stats thus far:  Days in London: two.  Number of times I’ve ordered fish and chips as a meal: two.  Number of close calls I’ve had with speeding cars after looking in the wrong direction while crossing the street: four (This is in spite of the clearly marked ‘Look Left’ or ‘Look Right’ warnings pasted in the crosswalk).

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